Maria’s gaze slid down to the offered hand, then back up. A stray lock of hair blew across her face but she didn’t bother tucking it away. “Come on. I want you to see this.” She motioned for Maria to join her and this time, she did. They continued along the creek for a few more minutes, keeping to the easier path along the center, where the water ran the quickest. That was until she reached the ledge above the pool. She smiled, anticipating the next few minutes, and pulled Maria up onto a large flat rock splitting the creek in two.
She hadn’t warned Maria ahead of time. She wanted her to get the full effect of seeing the unique landscape for the first time without any preconceptions. She wasn’t disappointed. Maria gasped, then sidled over to the edge to peer at the water below.
The creek dropped off suddenly, the clear water cascading off of a huge flat topped boulder that seemed to hang suspended over the edge of an almost perfectly circular pool. The drop to the water was at least ten feet and Stacie new from experience that the depth of the pool was twice that, if not more. There was no explanation for how deep the pool was, it definitely wasn’t an old quarry, and it was the only one like it that she had found after years of hiking the creek.
“It’s deep. Have you ever dived off from here?”
“Yes. But I wouldn’t until we’ve checked it out. Sometimes branches get caught up in the stream when there’s a storm and get stuck in the pool.”
“That’s too bad,” she said, sounding completely disappointed. Maria peered over the edge again, standing as close to the sharp drop off as anyone would dare and she did it without flinching. Stacie had to respect the other woman’s apparent fearlessness. A hawk screamed high up in the sky, probably the same one that had argued with them earlier. The sound echoed eerily below them, captured by the bowl shaped landscape that made it sound much closer.
“We’re invading his hunting ground and he doesn’t like it.” Maria said, tilting her head back to search for the hawk circling above them, exposing her profile to the full force of the sun. Her skin practically glowed under the harsh rays, accentuating the sharp curve of her nose and proud cheekbones of her native heritage. Her skirt had escaped its prison and now flowed gently round her ankles. That same gentle wind caressed across Stacie’s shoulders and face and spun down into the canyon, making the tree’s rustle in a quiet cacophony of whispers.
Maria had said Josie was a force of nature, but at this moment Stacie had to disagree. She had meant to surprise Maria with the beauty of a place she held dear to her, a secret place only a few close friends knew about. Somehow Maria’s presence had changed everything. It was all so much more than she remembered, her perception of the world shifting to include things she had never taken note of. The hawk screamed again, drawing her into a world, Maria’s world, where people weren’t the ones writing all the rules. Here, she was the invader, not the wild animals she knew were hidden away—patiently waiting for the two of them to leave so they could go about their lives.
“You’re very in tune with nature, aren’t you?” Stacie asked, trying to draw Maria back into the world she knew. Her world was logical, ordered, and she knew her place in it.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“No! I mean…” she stuttered, afraid that she had insulted the woman when she really didn’t mean to.
Maria grinned at her and Stacie clicked her teeth shut around her tongue before she managed to make more of an ass of herself. “I knew what you meant. What I want to know is why you think you aren’t.”
“You know I’m a vet. I deal with livestock all day. Domesticated creatures that have a purpose. Whether they are meant for labor, food, or companionship, they are all dependent on the people raising them and keeping them. I can’t think of anything less “natural” than that,” she said, trying to get the words out around ideas she had never really tried to argue. “I mean, look at this place. We’re the outsiders here, but a mile down the road Dee has a hundred head of cattle that will end up in the supermarket next month. Yet any of these ranchers around here will go out of their way to kill a wolf or coyote for stealing a sheep or two, and be angry as hell about it.”
“Like you’re angry now?” Maria asked, shocking Stacie out of her rant when she reached up and gently stroked her cheek. “Who are you angry at? The coyote or the rancher?”
Stacie looked away and growled under her breath. She hadn’t been that upset about anything in a long time, not since she had to report a horse breeder for overbreeding his mares. She could still see their gaunt forms, ribs sticking out around distended bellies that were all the bigger from pregnancy. They had all whinnied at her, a thin, heartbreaking sound that was both desperate and hopeful, thinking the hay bale in the back of her truck was for them.
“Every creature has a right to eat,” she finally replied, looking down at her hands and flexing them. She had never hit a single soul in anger before, but that day she had laid out the
